It is common for the operators of a web site to analyze the behavior of users on the web site, such as to determine how to adapt the web site to the needs or interests of the visiting users, or to determine how to sell and present advertising on the web site. In some cases, web site operators request or permit a third party to do so on their behalf.
Such analysis typically begins with a source of raw data about user behavior, such as web logs produced by web servers that serve the web site, or web logs produced by web servers that monitor behavior on the web site by serving small image files that are referenced on the pages of the web site.
Unfortunately, such raw data is so unwieldy and disorganized as to be difficult and expensive to directly use for such analysis. While intermediate data structures are sometimes constructed from the raw data for use in the analysis, conventional intermediate data structures are similarly laborious to build and/or analyze.
In view of the foregoing, a representation of user behavior information that is efficient to generate and analyze would have significant utility.